


Valhalla Can Wait

by d_aia



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Almost Imperceptible Thor Crossover, Ambiguous Relationships, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Minor Depictions of Magic, Nux Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 12:43:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4305549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d_aia/pseuds/d_aia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nux wakes up. First, he feels rocks under him and he knows he’s in the Citadel. Second, he sees a Blood Bag hanging from the ceiling and he knows he dreamed it all. Third, he hears is the revving of at least six motorcycles and two things are made clear: he doesn’t know shit and Valhalla didn’t allow him home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valhalla Can Wait

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Characters and locations are not mine. 
> 
> Additional Warnings: The character has experienced second-degree burns (partial thickness), but he wakes up mostly healed. Then he gets sun burnt because, well, they're in a desert. Sorry!

Nux wakes up. First, he feels rocks under him and he knows he’s in the Citadel. Second, he sees a Blood Bag hanging from the ceiling and he knows he dreamed it all. Third, he hears is the revving of at least six motorcycles and two things are made clear: he doesn’t know shit and Valhalla didn’t allow him home.

“He’s awake!” shouts a voice.

“How awake?” asks another.

Nux tries to move, but he’s tied down.

“Awake awake!” shouts the first voice.

Nux cranes his neck to try see over his shoulder but he stops short at the sight of his shoulder. It’s burned and slashed. Larry and Barry, gone. He tries to move his arm. The skin pulls, but it doesn’t hurt too much. Most of the pain is from the cut buried deep towards his neck and stapled. Probably the frame of the rig, then. The burns are almost healed, pink with new skin, so he’s been here a while, and they continue down his arm and on his belly. He has become aware of a healing scab of some sort on his chin. Other than that, he might as well say he walked from the whole mess.

Unbelievable. Why Valhalla? Why him?

Suddenly, he’s surrounded by things. He recognizes the Rock Riders, but that doesn’t mean he understands them. Too much cloth. How do they even breathe? Give him a stick of clay any day.

“War Boy!” One yells.

Nux doesn’t react besides leaning his head back further. The man spits when he talks. After two days with the Wives that seems wrong.  

“War Boy!” The man with the raspy voice yells again.

Now Nux has no idea how he’s supposed to react. “Yes?” he tries. The word is drawn out and uncertain.

No luck. “WAR BOY!” The man’s voice rebounds in the cave. 

“WHAT?” Nux shouts back.

“There you go!” The man laughs.

Blinking wearily, Nux is certain. Too much cloth. The Riders are crazier than… Slit. But then again he was guaranteed a place in Valhalla, so what does Nux know?

“Hey!” The man slaps his face. “Are you falling asleep again?”

“I better,” Nux murmurs. Then louder, stressing each word, “What-do-you-want?” Why am alive? Why did you help me heal?

“You’re a _War Boy_!” For Immortan Joe’s… uh, whoever’s sake, the man is like a wheel! Spinning round and round. But it soon stops and he says, “We know that out of all the cars that left, only one returned. The Citadel’s weak! You are going to help us get there. Or else.”

He is? No, Nux isn’t going to help them with nothing. Especially something that will mean trouble for the Citadel, will make the Br—Wives sad or angry, depending on their disposition, will make the Blood Bag growl, will displease Furiosa, and will put Capable in danger. Also, this may be it. His chance at Valhalla. It will be a stretch, as it isn’t exactly on the road or historic, but The Dag said what they were doing was important and this is kind of the same. Maybe.

As Nux smiles—he wishes he had his chrome—and opens his mouth to say ‘no’, he sees the Blood Bag shaking its head. His head. _They are people too, just like you._ Nux knows that, Toast, it’s just too many new rules. Takes some time getting used to, that’s all. The Blood Bag shakes his head. No, she shakes her head. It is the one with the long hair—now shorn short like Furiosa’s, maybe more like his Blood Bag’s—and the odd name… The Valkyrie! Isn’t she dead? Why is she his Blood Bag? And why is she shaking her head? What? Why?  

“Fine,” Nux says, smile in place. He has _just_ decided _for himself_ that he was going to wait! Ha! …At least until he finds out what the hell is going on here! It’s not like they can kill him twice for lying. And he’s not afraid of pain. He knows it closely and for a long time.

There’s silence. The Riders are looking at him, at each other, then at him again. Nux grins. And waits.  

“Of course you are!” The man is back to yelling.

“I know the War Boys’ side,” Nux says dryly. They can’t have gotten close enough to see the Citadel. He hopes. “You need a breeder for the Immortan’s side.” That isn’t even a lie. He had never been to Immortan Joe’s rooms.

“WHAT?”

Nux’s ears are hurting.  And that’s saying something. He’s so tired of orders and being yelled at. “My Blood Bag is fine.”

“WHAT?!”

“You bled a perfectly good Breeder for a War Boy,” shrugs Nux as best he can while being tied up.  

Nux lost the next moments in the din. He comes to when the raspy cloth Rider with the horns on his head punches him. “What’s its name then?” He sneers.

Heart beating faster, Nux realizes that Immortan Joe would never think up a name like ‘The Valkyrie’. So what’s her name? Think. _Think! THINK!_ “Capable.” The Valkyrie fixes him with an exasperated look. This is why he shouldn’t be allowed to talk.

The man shakes his… everything and orders, “Let the Breeder down.” As the Riders move to obey, he says, “Put them in a cell. We leave as soon as we’re sure we’re not going to lose the Breeder in transport.” With that he was gone.

As Nux is hustled into a cell and she is carried into the same one, he watches her. She didn’t seem so drained when the Rider asked his questions, but he wouldn’t have guessed so with how she seems now. She looks half dead. Her head dangling over a Rider’s shoulder, eyes looking sightlessly into the distance. He thinks she’s faking it. She must be. But he was taught that real warriors don’t need faking. They need power, courage, daring and the knowledge that Valhalla will open her gates for them.

But it works for her. It gets them more time so it works for them and for the situation. Nux doesn’t know what to think anymore.

“Why?” Nux asks quietly when they’re in the cell.

The Valkyrie turns steel eyes on him and stares. She doesn’t answer. What she says instead would be important in any other situation. Not when Capable is in danger. Not when the life of the first person who _trusted_ him without him having to _prove himself_ first may be on the line. “Your hair is black.” What? So, instead, he resents her for not answering.

The things she _is_ saying are gibberish. She shouldn’t have any idea about his hair color since he hadn’t been able to grow hair on his body thanks to the chalk for going on five years now. And Nux doesn’t even care about that at the moment. “You shook your head.” He repeats, “Why?”

She blinks and lifts her chin. He growls because he feels like he’s one of Immortan Joe’s Kamicrazy War Boys again—how did Angharad called it? Manipulated. Used. He has a heavy weight in his stomach.

One of the two guard Riders hits the bars. “Watch the Breeder, feral Boy!”

Nux snaps his teeth at the guard.

The Valkyrie touches his hand and he quiets.

“He can be trained,” taunts the other guard, or the first again. It’s impossible to tell.

“They remind me of you,” says the Valkyrie idly.

What does _that_ mean? It must be the same thing that made her shook her head. Probably. But what’s the connection? What does the Valkyrie know about him anyway? She knows he was a Kamicrazy War Boy, that he was cannon fodder, that he tried his best to kill the wives, then he had _wanted_ to help the wives and then he _actually helped_ the wives. So what does she mean? They remind her of him. But to him it seems more the Immortan-Joe-him then the Capable-him. What about it? Oh. The time he thought he could bring the Wives to Immortan Joe so he left on his own to kill Furiosa and get them back. The first time, that is. So, all Nux had to do was convince the Riders to take them to the Citadel—without telling anyone—in time to warn Furiosa and the Wives.

“Next time, you open your mouth and speak,” Nux whispers viciously.

The Valkyrie doesn’t seem impressed. “You had to come up with it yourself, but you’ve never been taught to think this way.”

Nux is getting angry. He bares his teeth in a so-called smile. “I used to be canon-fodder for an insane old man. Then I was still canon-fodder, but it was my choice and I’m not going back. You taught me, I learned. Next time, _talk_.”

Steel eyes fix Nux again, searching. The Valkyrie nods. She touches his shoulder to show that she understands. “The chalk’s almost gone.”

“I know.”

The guard bangs on the cell bars. “Don’t talk!”

Nux nudges the Valkyrie. She turns to him, not understanding. Nux rolls his eyes, gives a sardonic smile and says loudly, “Shut up!”

“But…” The Valkyrie catches on to the fact that she needs to speak. She’s not clear on what she is supposed to say, but Nux can work with that. He knows a thing or two about eager to please canon-fodder.

“No!” Nux yells.

“What’s that?” a guard yells back.

The Riders enter the cell and try to punch the truth out of Nux. Then they try to kick it. When that doesn’t work, they think up a combination. One of them tears a staple and Nux flinches. He can’t say anything, because he wouldn’t. It’s funny how these things work—he has to put himself in their position and try to think like them, then he tries to make them…him believe him. He has to fake that he’s not telling anything, in order to make them listen when he fakes and tell them something. Dizzying—and that’s coming from a half-life—but he thinks it’s a lot simpler in reality: him talking, not believable.

“Don’t hurt him!” the Valkyrie shouts uncharacteristically. The only time Nux has heard her so out of control was when she was bait. Which practically tells all.

“What were you talking about?” one Rider demands.

“I was saying that…” the Valkyrie bites her lips and continues, her voice lower, “that if you would be War Boys, the two of you could probably get there in a week and them take the Citadel.”

“Shut up,” grunts Nux. He is promptly kicked quiet. But he is a War Boy so, “They aren’t. And they won’t. Have to gather all the herd of Riders.” He huffs and his ribs tinge. “They’ll never get to the Citadel in time.”

“Oh, we will!” one or the same Rider—there was really no way to tell—insists. “And when we come back, we’re going to be gods! They wouldn’t dream to deny us anything!”

The other Rider—so that’s how you tell—says reverently, “We can have everything.”

Nux doesn’t meet the Valkyrie’s eye.  He doesn’t want to know what’s in there, hidden in steel depths, and doesn’t want to show her what he’s feeling. Considering he doesn’t know himself and doesn’t want to, Nux thinks it’s the best decision.

In a bit, they are on the two motorcycles riding through the night. Nux is all tied up, but the fools didn’t tie the Valkyrie down. If talking to them didn’t work, they could still kill them.

*

They have less than a day’s ride away—they can see the Citadel, it’s right _there_ in the distance—and they have left the Rock Riders’ Castle three days ago. The Riders actually ride their bikes like the devils they resemble. Even with the added weight.

The Valkyrie wants them to say more about the attack on the Citadel, but they haven’t so far. Nux hasn’t made any advances on which Rider is which. And that is saying something, considering one is an old-ish man and the other is a woman, younger than Valkyrie. Shou and Hikari like to talk to the Valkyrie and are disgusted by the whole thing with Breeders and War Boys. But once the masks come back on—and they only stay off for a few minutes each day—the Riders revert back to croaks and Nux to not being able to tell them apart. He calls them ‘it’ instead. That may or may not be due to Nux still being tied to the bike. They turn him so his skin can be ‘even’ and have a great big laugh about it.

Because Nux’s chalk is all gone. Luckily, if you could call it that, the sun burn was lost in the Night Fevers. They even cancelled each other out. He almost didn’t remember a night in which the Night Fevers had been so mild. Now with the white gone, he is baking his way into becoming one with the sand. His newly healed skin is a bit darker than the rest of him, but there are no other pains specifically from it so he thanks V8 and leaves it at that. He hadn’t felt the tightness from punches and kicks since the first day. Aside from the staple that had been ripped—and the blood form it, which is itchy once dried—he is as healthy as he’s ever been.

And that is shiny, because not three hundred miles after they had left the mountains, the first of two Spiked Jalopies makes its way across the sand, the Buzzards giving chase to the scrap metal and meat that has entered their territory. Nux, Valkyrie and the Riders, on the other hand, would rather keep their scrap metal, but especially their meat. Also Nux, and he hoped Valkyrie had the same idea, would like the Buzzards’ spiked cars, because the Citadel may need them. At this point, a confrontation is a given which is why Nux is so desperate.

“I can help,” Nux shouts. 

The Rider doesn’t even look at him, which granted is a good thing, and says dryly, “No.” Then proceeds to ride on a dune, propelling its bike—Nux makes such a nice ornament, all curled up over the front wheel, _tied up_ and _helpless_!—into the air, from where it launches a grenade at the engine of the Jalopy. The Jalopy explodes into a roar of fire, but the Rider, his bike and Nux are already making their way out of the blast zone.

“Untie me,” Nux is getting increasingly something, “and I can help.” Angry, he’s getting angry. “Come on!”

“No,” croaks the voice again.

At the same time, a knife thumps next to his hands, slicing clean through the rope and burying itself in the cloth that covers the frame. Nux doesn’t even have time to thank the Valkyrie for her well placed gift, because the Riders have already destroyed one of the cars. In four moves of his new toy, he’s got the knife out, his left foot untied and his arms free, bracing on the frame. Only a bit of rope is clinging to his right leg. It’s a belly down day today, so it’s a simple matter of lifting his left foot so he can have leverage on the seat and kicking out with the right to get the Rider off the bike. Nux needs two kicks because—he never learns—the Rider catches the bit of rope that still sticks to his leg and tries to drag him down. The Rider soon topples over in the sand and Nux, rolling the throttle to give the bike more guzz, looks around for Valkyrie.

Valkyrie is on the other side of the second Jalopy, having gotten rid of her Rider, and waiting for Nux. As soon as she sees him ready, she throws some sand into the air then makes her way toward a dune. Nux thinking that he had understood what she signaled, got his bike a bit behind and as close as possible to the spiked car. As soon as the Valkyrie is in the air, Nux gains speed and abruptly veers, managing to make a sand shower to distract from the flying Valkyrie. And her knife. It imbeds itself into the driver Buzzard, forcing the other to scramble in his hurry to get rid of him and control the Jalopy. Not wanting to give the surviving Buzzard the time to think about his open driver door, Nux turns his bike around until he’s facing the incoming car, and rides straight toward the Spiked Jalopy. By the time Nux is still quite a way to the car, the Valkyrie climbed into car and dispatched the remaining Buzzard. Nux signs towards him and signals right. It’s three blinks of an eye: the bike and the car pass by each other; the car turns; they are heading back for the bike and the Riders. Important tools, both.

And of course, the Buzzards let out an Excavator. Because why not? This one is Nux’s. The only problem is that he doesn’t have a knife. Because he wasn’t expecting to wake up a Riders’ hostage. What he was prepared for was Valhalla. But that didn’t happen and all sorts of other things did. And now he’s here! Racing toward a Buzzard Excavator with no idea what he is going to do when he gets there! It’s the first time that to succeed means to survive. He yells in fury, aims the bike at an angle so it escapes any damage and jumps onto the support strut for the circular blade saw. Everyone in surprised. He knows this because he, for one, didn’t see that coming.

Not far behind, the Valkyrie passes by the driver side of the truck and pelts it with crossbow spikes. Nux thinks she either hid that in her clothes or just found it in the car. Anything is possible. Either way, the driver is down. As the other Buzzard pushes the driver out, Nux grabs hold of a two larger spikes, pushes his body up, over the hood and then downward through the windshield-that-isn’t.  He lands in the Buzzards lap. Using his back to keep the wheel steady—it’s a good thing that he is used to pain, because his back is scratched three ways to Valhalla—he tries to find the exact amount of force that would knock him out or kill him. He does this by grabbing the man by the face and banging his head repeatedly into the metal frame of the Excavator. Eventually there’s blood and lack of fighting so Nux pushes him out. He rights himself of the seat. And smiles. This is turning out to be a lovely day.

Giving a whoop, Nux turns back to collect the others. He stops at his bike, which he quickly wrestles it in the back. Another stop at Valkyrie’s bike and then onto the actual people.

Valkyrie frowns when he out of the Excavator, holding some chains he found in the car to tie up the Riders—no rope for them—and she sees his back. “You okay?”

“Scratched,” Nux shrugs. “We’ve got to go.” They might be back.

But before Nux got the chance to finish, Valkyrie was on her way to collecting her Rider. That isn’t that odd, he was saying what they both knew. The chain in her hands, the one he doesn’t remember giving her, is the one that’s weird. Rolling his eyes, he approaches his own Rider. Or really _a Rider_ , because, _yes, he doesn’t know_ the difference.

“Kami _crazy_ War Boy,” it croaks.

Nux ignores it.

*

With a Rider next to him, chained to the door, the bikes in the back and Valkyrie—her Rider attached—driving along the Excavator they get closer to the Citadel. Too close. Aren’t there patrols anymore? Nux catches Valkyrie giving him questioning looks and knows that the worry is apparent on his face. Never had any reason for things to be different, but he supposes that too will have to change. He mouths ‘patrols’ back at her and is rewarded by a frown.

They finally appear in a cloud of dust, racing towards them. While they are trying to make up for not defending their territory promptly by the great speed, the familiar chalk painted faces and lots of whooping and hooting, Nux can tell they are not at full power. Five bikes and two cars are about five bikes more than Nux had expected and three cars less. Then again, Immortan Joe took with him most of the cars and the Black Thumbs that went with them.

“Sounds like home, huh?” the Rider croaks.

Nux ignores it.

The Valkyrie stops her car—making Nux break and idle his truck—and gets out, arms outstretched.

For the gates of Valhalla, why? “Valkyrie?!” Nux shouts confused.

“Keep the engine running,” the Valkyrie says.

And yes, Nux isn’t planning on stopping anytime soon. That still doesn’t explain why she, not only stopped, but also exited her Jalopy. Those spikes have to be good for something. Then again, they, and the Citadel, can’t afford to lose any War Boys. So maybe she knows what she’s doing. Not that he doubted her, because he’s here, isn’t he?

“Valkyrie?” the Rider in the Jalopy shouts.

Nux shrugs easily, “I lied.”

“That’s not a name that Immortan Joe chose,” the same Rider accuses.

“No, it isn’t.”

“She’s not one of his Breeders; she’s part of another tribe.”

“Yes, she is,” Nux responds absently. They are closer. He hopes Valkyrie’s plan will kick in soon.

The now fuming and struggling Rider asks, “Are you even a Kamicrazy War Boy?”

Nux laughs. “What do you think?”

The Rock Rider settles abruptly.

“I am,” the Valkyrie starts saying loudly and firmly, quieting the War Boys’ hollers, “the Valkyrie. I am daughter of Vivid Channel and one of the Vuvalini of Many Mothers. My initiate mother was Katie Concannon and my clan was Swaddle Dog. We bring Furiosa our respect, two Rock Riders and their bikes, a Spiked Jalopy and a Buzzard Excavator.”

By the time the Valkyrie is finished talking, the War Boys have loosely surrounded them. Munition—a War Boy that had the Blood Bag next to Nux’s when Furiosa was caught stealing from Immortan Joe—jumps from the car. He walks around her slowly, grinning like a mad man. “The Vuvalini are known.” Munition nods. “We?” he asks. 

The Valkyrie raises her chin. “Me,” she says firmly. “…and the War Boy Nux,” Valkyrie mumbles and rushes through the words. Nux thinks that’s smart; they don’t know what to expect.

And they’re right to be careful as that has the power to make Munition stop. “Nux? Imperator Nux?”

Not as far as Nux knows.

“He’s dead,” Ulna shouts from the closest bike.

“He lives. He dies. He lives again,” the Valkyrie says dryly. “Did you just skip over Furiosa’s gifts?”

Nux isn’t sure what it says about the War Boys that Nux is of more interest than four new vehicles and two slaves, but he doesn’t think it’s anything good.

“He worked with Immortan Furiosa in her Great Escape. He cud-cuddled,” Munition seems to have trouble with the word; it’s new to Nux too, Capable having taught it to him. Munition starts over, “He cuddled Imperator Capable during the Cold Time.” Nux sees the Valkyrie smile before hastily hiding it. All the while Munition continues, working himself into a frenzy along the way, “He fixed the Immortan’s car, making himself sick in the process and _drove_ the Immortan’s car. Imperator Capable says that the Immortan herself made him be Imperator for forever because he laid down his life in defense of her and her sisters. There’s no greater honor than that!”

And that is the warning of an attacking War Boy if there ever was one.

Nux pushes himself out of the Excavator, before Munition finds out that the Valkyrie is a worthy enemy and decides to die with glory. “Hey,” he shouts. Maybe he should have thought that better. Go for historic, instead of whatever that was.

Still, it makes an impression.

“That him?” Jam asks. “Doesn’t look like him.”

Of course, it’s a mediocre impression.

“There’s the V8 on his chest, fool!” Bark answers. “And his lips. Look like they’ve been sown shut. It’s him!”

“It’s as Imperator Capable told us,” a young War Boy Nux doesn’t know confirms. He must be a grown War Pup. But not fully grown. In V8’s name, that’s bad.

“Doesn’t look like him,” Jam maintains. “He’s brown and he has hair.”

Has he? Nux hand twitches to find out. He makes a fist instead.

“How about I kill you and leave you in the desert for thirty days?” Munition sneers. “Then we’ll see how _you_ look when you come back.”

With that Jam quiets; there’s no glory in being killed in a scuffle.

“I am Nux, of the Kamicrazy War Boys,” Nux says as firmly as he knows how. 

There’s suddenly a lot whooping, hooting and hollering. Almost enough to hide the slam of the door as Valkyrie’s Rider makes a break for it. Nux’s Rider tries too, but Nux is nice enough to help it out with a push into the frame. It slumps down in its seat, unmoving. Nux decides that enough is too much and rips its masks off. There’s something about not seeing the other’s face—or even knowing which one it is—that unsettles him. ‘It’ is the man: Shou. That means that the woman is the one currently running through the desert.

“Where’s she going?” Nux asks idly.

“Beats me,” shrugs Munition. His eyes widen, “Wait. She?”

Nux smirks.

The Valkyrie rolls her eyes. She goes to the nearest bike and says, “Move.” And unsurprisingly, she’s on the bike and racing toward the slav—hostage in the time it took Nux to blink twice. The Valkyrie takes her down fast, with a chain to Hikari’s ankles.

As Nux watches the Valkyrie drag the Rock Rider back, it occurs to him that they have a lot of work to do.

*

Nux realizes that things have changed in the Citadel. And still, not as much as he thought. He’s treated to the stories as their group makes their way to the Citadel. They are met with confusion, but Munition says that they’ll all wait until Bark has made an announcement. They are so many these days, that any time the Immortan or one of the Imperators has something to say, they make Bark relay it. It makes people better to know that they have one person who conveys messages to and from them.

Apparently, the Wretched have become the Farmers, the ones that work with Imperator Dag to keep the green things, but also the Caretakers—who are like the Black Thumbs, but seeing as they barely had someone to teach them, they still mainly move grease around until Furiosa comes to show them more—and the Builders, the ones that built the rest of them shelters. Some even followed Imperator Toast in trying to cover from the loss of the War Boys until the War Pups grow up, although Imperator Cheedo and sometimes Imperator Dag don’t understand why there should be any War Boys to begin with. They argue about this a lot, Ditto the War Boy that now supervises the platform, hears them all the time. 

Immortan Furiosa still has to do a thousand things at once, even after 40-ish days, so they try not to bother her. Imperator Capable is the Immortan’s First Imperator and spends all her time doing the things that Furiosa doesn’t have time to do. She comes to spend time with the War Boys and the War Pups: gives them strange things to drink—tea, she said it was called; it tastes bad— made out of green stuff that helps with the fevers and tells them stories.

Also, there’s aqua-cola three times a day for a few hours so the Builders built something that Munition can’t explain, but one of the Imperators can if Nux wants to know. They have tea stuff and something that had water in it—broth—now. The broth sloshes in the stomach. Munition seems unclear whether it’s shiny or mediocre.

All in all it’s better, but Munition doesn’t think it will last. The Imperators are not one and the Immortan is too busy to settle them. Munition says it and looks at Nux all hopeful. It’s not unlike how they used to look at Immortan Joe and Nux feels a strange weight on him. It makes him consider his actions and words like never before. He wants to tell Munition he’s not a god. That he’s not deserving of Munition’s worship. But then again, Nux thinks Munition knows that: he must remember Nux since they were little, he grew up alongside him and Slit as yipping War Pups. So then, Munition knows that and he’s still asking. Nux feels too small for his clothes and, at the same time, a good kind of warmth makes its way somewhere deep in his belly. It, like everything else after that desert storm, confuses him.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Nux says as the platform rises. Munition beams like he hasn’t heard anything shinier and Nux averts his eyes, checking to see if Shou is still out next to him. He’s looking for something to say to distract him from the thought of seeing Capable again. “Why aren’t the Wret—Farmers crowding to get on?”

“They did that at first and the Imperators were kind to let them, but the Wretched were desperate and hungry,” Munition says with a shrug. Nux stops fidgeting and listens, while Munition continues, “They tried to destroy everything from the green things, to the Mothers Milk. Bark got there pretty fast, with Femur and me not far behind, but by that time they were laid out. They weren’t many, see. And nobody messes with Immortan Furiosa. I hear that Imperator Toast took one too.”

“But nothing happened to the Imperators?” Nux asks, clenching his hand on the wheel, his fingers turning white.

“No, the Immortan wouldn’t have allowed it,” Munition says flippantly from the seat behind Nux. While he’s keeping the bikes steady, he’s telling Nux all that’s happened. It occurs to Nux that he underestimated Munition when he takes notice of Nux’s hands and says, “No, Imperator Nux. Everybody’s fine.” After a beat with Nux still tense, Munition adds, “Imperator Capable doesn’t have a scratch on her.”

Nux, betrayed by his body relaxing, turns and glares.

Munition leans back.

Nux turns back, smiling against his will. He hears a giggle behind him and his smile widens. But then there’s a rustle beside him and the War Boys are dragged back to the situation on hand. He signals Munition, but he’s already got a spare chain and is watching avidly. They are almost at the garage dug into rock, so Munition transfers Shou getting him tied up and, after waiting for Nux to tell a couple of War Pups about the bikes, they move to the Immortan’s Ledge. It’s the place from where the Joe used to hold his speeches. Jam brings up a bloody Hikari and a smiling Valkyrie has a hand looped behind Furiosa’s head in her customary greeting. They are silent as they gaze in each others’ eyes.

Bark, leans forward, to shout at the people gathered down and around the Citadel. “Today,” he begins, but seems to realize that he can’t be heard with the water turned on. He pulls the handle and starts again, “Today is a glorious day. Two of our own have returned with a precious bounty: 4 vehicles!” People are cheering, War Pups are howling and War Boys are hollering. “Two bikes, one Spiked Jalopy and one Buzzard Excavator!” Bark stops again, waiting for the noise to die down. “Honor: the Valkyrie of the Vuvalini of Many Mother, tribe-sister to Immortan Furiosa and Imperator Nux!”

Everybody quiets suddenly. Nux sees Furiosa startle and turn toward him. She has a dagger in her hand, eyes studying him restlessly, but a smile makes its way on her face. Soon, she is laughing, mouthing ‘welcome back’ and signaling to the opposite mountain. Nux frowns and turns. He hears her before he sees her.

“Out of my way,” Capable shouts. Then there she is, running towards the edge of the cliff. She almost bowels two War Boys over before she grabs hold of a pulley and whizzes her way across to him. Their eyes meet while she is in flight. “Nux!” she cries delightedly, he red whipping around her head. And that’s what it takes for the crowd to go wild, for the whopping to get out of control. Nux will have talk to her about what exactly she said to them. Later.

Now, Capable’s almost there and Nux steps forward to steady her. She doesn’t seem to mind the height or the speed or anything at all. Grinning like a mad woman, she’s beautiful and joyful and alive and has him in a hug faster than he can blink. He tightens his arms around her, careful not to hurt, but oh-so-happy to have her here. It feels like home. And for her part, she squeezes so hard that he’d fear for his ability to breathe, if he didn’t like it so much.

“You’re alive,” Capable mumbles. She raises her head from where it’s buried in his chest and loosens her embrace enough to look him in the face. Her eyes are shiny with tears. “You followed,” she chokes.  

He wants to say ‘I’ll always follow’, Nux wants to say ‘I’ll always come back to you’, but before he can open his mouth he feels a strong blow to his back. He knows he’s going down over the ledge, but he’s not going to take Capable with him. He shouts, “Bark!” and _quickly_ , because he doesn’t have much time, he tangles Capable in the pulley and pushes her toward the War Boy.

And Nux falls.

“No!” yells Capable. That’s how he knows she’s fine. “Nux!” It comes out desperate and painful and he realizes that there are different kinds of hurt.

Nux thinks about going down screaming, ‘Witness me’. But what’s the point? Is he still living for a chance to die historic? Or is he living for something else? When he realizes that his actions have spoken louder than two little words for a while now, he sees the rock wall rapidly flashing before him and he wants to live. To protect and to make life better. For him and for those close him; for those who won his respect and his devotion, for those who cared for him right back. _He will live!_

And like a mad man, a feral driven by the sole purpose—to live—he claws at the merciless wall. His hands are scratched, his pants are in tatters, his legs tremble, his muscles are pulled taunt and achy, but Nux stops falling. Now, every moment is won, because he should have been dead and he isn’t. _Again_. So really, it’s all on the up and up from here. He clasps his hand on an unstable rock, and his leg slips on a water soaked edge, and the sand falls in his eyes, and his everything wobbles with exhaustion, and he climbs slowly, and he wants to give up and let go, but he is going to put his all into this climb.

Nux is almost at the ledge when his universe widens. It’s such a short distance, but it seems so hard to keep going. He hears the people cheering and rabid roars from inside the Immortan’s Ledge.

“We need the information,” Nux hears Furiosa’s firm raised voice. “You want to kill them, I know. But you can’t.”

“Who said anything about killing them?” Capable sounds unhinged. “I am only going to tear off their arms and leg. Honest!”

Nux finally reaches a hand over the ledge and pulls himself up on stable ground.

“I didn’t hear his request. Why didn’t I hear ‘witness me’? Why are the people cheering?” Bark, now tangled in Capable’s pulley, keeps mumbling questions. “Why—” He raises his head, sees Nux and freezes. His eyes widen.

Nux pats him on the back as he enters further in the cave, earning himself a whimper. He sees Jam and Munition holding on to Shou with rage obvious in their actions, each holding him by an arm, shaking and snarling at him. The Valkyrie watches Shou so her back is to Nux, but it stiffens when his eyes pass over her. In a corner is a sneering Hikari, protected by a resolute Furiosa, from a manic Capable. Hikari self-righteously hardens her chin when her eyes fall on Nux. He gives her his best savage smirk and he sees the determined expression slip with a few confused blinks. She swallows.

Furiosa is skeptically following the direction Hikari was looking to see Nux. She laughs a short, fierce laugh, making everybody else turn to see. Jam and Munition cruelly jerk a speechless Shou in place with their hooting. Capable calms down.

“Oh,” Capable says. “You’re alive.” She turns and punches Hikari viciously, making her head snap back into the rock behind her, knocking her unconscious. Then, flipping a braid over her shoulder, Capable smiles sweetly. The War Boys are watching her wearily. She opens her arms and beckons Nux who eagerly embraces her. “Good. You came back to me.”

The Imperators enter the cave to find: Bark unmoving, trapped in a pulley; Jam and Munition victorious, but scooting away from Capable, dragging with them a spluttering Shou; Furiosa and Valkyrie laughing their ass off next to a terrified, but still brave Hikari; and Capable and Nux trying to ignore everyone while hugging. Needless to say, they are confused. It’s also not Nux’s problem and he buries his face in Capable’s hair, trusting the world to take care of itself for the moment.

*

Nux is laying down, his head in Capable’s lap. He’s content and lazy. Capable, who had the idea in the first place, is brushing her fingers through his hair, to inspect his scars and to familiarize herself with his features. Her fingers are soft and her touches feel so good.

The Imperators and the Immortan are having a discussion in the vault. Apparently Nux’s Blood Bad—Max—heard about a raid being carried out by the Bullet Farm and hurried back to warn them. Added to the information the two Riders reluctantly coughed up, the Rock Riders were working with the Bullet Farmers to obtain aqua-cola from the Citadel. So here they are, the Imperators going at each other with Max, Nux and Furiosa, in various states of relaxation, watching on. Furiosa is rigid, but confident as ever, Max has that weird completely stiff but absolutely in control thing going for him and Nux is mostly just tense when Capable’s fingers tighten, but otherwise he’s not troubled by any of it. After all, he’s just a weapon for them: point him and shoot.

“Did we torture the Rock Riders?” The Dag asks sharply. “Is that how we found out?”

“Does it matter?” Toast replies darkly. “They are attacking us.”

“Yes,” says The Dag, stung. “It matters to me.”

“We explained to them the situation,” Capable says, making Nux flinch at the high volume. She continues, voice lowered, “Hikari even wants to join us.” She doesn’t seem too happy about that.

“You are upset that she almost killed your crazy War Boy,” Cheedo accuses.

Nux can tell that Capable shrugs, admitting the truth of her words easily. “His name is Nux.” Nux feels a smile tugging at his lips.

“Nux the Immortal,” Toast adds. “Or is it Nux of the One Thousand Lives?”

“Yes, glorify the War Boy,” says the Dag spitefully. “To make more want to be just like him.”

“Like what? What if more War Boys _don’t_ die defending us? How is that a bad thing?” Capable defends. 

Nux squirms slightly not used to the attention.

“Why do we _have to have_ War Boys in the first place?” the Dag’s question rings out in the vault.

Cheedo agrees quietly, “I’m with the Dag.”

With a sound of frustration, Toast raises her voice, “Didn’t you hear? The Riders and the Farmers are planning a _raid_ on the Citadel. How do expect we defend ourselves?”

“We don’t,” Cheedo says. “We get everyone up and then we wait them out. They’ll out of water sooner or later.”

“Then what?” Capable asks.

“Then we open negotiations,” Cheedo responds. “We have plants that can help them and water.”

Toast’s voice sounds incredulous, “And you expect them to play fair? Expect them to be satisfied with a piece of something when they can have it all?”

“Cheedo just said—” the Dag begins.

Interrupting her, Toast says, “That we wait, then we negotiate. At what point do we believe them? When do we trust them not to come back without warning and kill us all? We can’t all live in the Citadel forever.”

“Why not?” the Dag wants to know. “Why can’t we just stay here? We have food and water. What else do we need?”

“We need the Farmers not to come back with more bombs than we can count and blow us up sky high,” Toast spits.

Capable places a kiss on Nux’s forehead. “So somebody must be sacrificed for us.” She gently cups Nux’s cheek, making his open his eyes. “We are no better than Immortan Joe.” And Nux sees the sadness in her eyes.

“What do you say, Nux?” Furiosa asks, finally speaking.

“I’m just a War Boy,” Nux tries to shrug and, after that fails, flaps a hand.

“You are not what you were, Nux,” Furiosa says gently. “Do you know that when I knew Valkyrie, she was the same age? Got to us in a colorful tunnel; burned the grass right off. She says she gave you her blood and you’re healed.”

“I always have the best Blood Bags,” Nux mumbles getting a strange mix of a snort and a growl from Max and giggles from the Imperators.

Furiosa’s lips curve slightly. “I believe her. She also says you’re eager to help. So, help. Tell us your side of it.”

Nux carefully doesn’t move. Healed? Is he not a half-life anymore? But what does that mean? What has changed when he got down to it? The desire to protect his new home is still there. The willingness to do anything in his power to do it is still there. The effort that is expended so that he might return will still be spent. Nothing that matters is changed. It’s just less likely that he might die in the night, prey to his fevers. Nux looks at Max and sees understanding. He sees encouragement. He remembers Munition’s words, his uncertainty.

Pointing to a part of a wall, Nux raises. “What does it say there?”

There is silence for a few moments; nobody understands what they are supposed to do.

“The brake pedal,” Max growls nonsensically.

Furiosa is on it immediately, “He had ‘NUX’ written on the brake pedal. Nux can write and he can read.”

“Right, I wasn’t born in the Citadel,” Nux admits sheepishly. “My parents weren’t warriors.” He takes a deep breath and points again, “’We are not things’ and you have proven you are not. Then why do you insist that we, the War Boys and War Pups are? The people here are not warriors and the Citadel needs protecting. What makes you think you should have a say in what we choose to sacrifice? In this you are like Immortan Joe. I agree with asking for volunteers, making it something people want to do. But if we want to defend, if we want to protect our home why should you have a say? If we—they—want to give meaning to their half-life, who are you to take away?

“And if they are defending, don’t you want to give them all a chance to train? Don’t you want to send them with their brothers—and sisters, why not—that they have trained with? To make them less likely to say, ‘Witness me’? A lot of things can and have to change around here. Asking them and the Wretched if they want to do it is one of them. Not risking themselves for nothing is another. Starting them so young. Naming them War Dogs if women want to join. A lot of things. The War _Dogs_ purpose and existence isn’t one of them. We are not things.”

Silence greets his announcement. Ashamed, proud, apologetic or considering looks all around. Capable gives him a kiss on the cheek and a whispered, ‘I’m sorry’. He squeezes an arm around her shoulders to tell her it’s fine. They didn’t know, but now they do and they’ll change. He’s sure of it.

Furiosa looks like she has found redemption and another green place. “Very well. We’re keeping the War Dogs, we’ll let everyone know later. What are we going to do about the raid?”

“Simple,” Max grunts. “We steal the cars. And the bullets. Then,” he nods shortly at Cheedo and is back to addressing them, “you negotiate.”

Everybody turns to look at Max, starting to think how they are going to do _that_. Nux participates. Maybe there’s place in this new world they are building for all of them. Valhalla can wait.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you want to comment (or just talk to me) you can do it here or on my [tumblr](http://e-alexandrescu.tumblr.com/).


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